What’s Cooking with Pamela and Gary?
Come along as MidWeek visits Pamela Young and Gary Sprinkle at home for a conversation that reveals why KITV’s husband-wife anchors are two of Hawaii’s nicest people, and most respected journalists. At Home With Pamela Young And Gary Sprinkle, We Learn That She Is A Gourmet Cook, And Come To A Greater Appreciation Of Kitv’s Husband-Wife News Anchors
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years on the air here.
For Young, TV broadcasting was not her original career choice. The Kalani High School grad was going to be a classical dancer. She has a BA and MBA in dance from San Francisco State.
“But I still have to tap dance occasionally,” she says in jest, noting how her profession went from doing pirouettes to pushing deadlines.
She entered the news field when she auditioned for a reporter’s job at KPIX-TV in San Francisco. It was a pioneering effort in many respects. At the time, there were no women role models in TV. Plus she didn’t have a degree in broadcast. She was Asian and female.
But she overcame those stereotypes and broke into the TV news in 1974.
She met Sprinkle in 1983 while working on a China documentary needing the use of KGMB’s editing facilities.
“I thought he was a jock; I’m not that easy,” Young recounts.
After failed attempts to get a date, Sprinkle succumbed to that local trick that always brings people together. He bought Young a mixed plate lunch and started friendly conversation.
They dated for two years and were married in 1985.
With Two You Get Payroll
Former KHON and KITV news director Wally Zimmerman, now senior vice president at Bright Light Marketing, is responsible for the Sprinkle-Young pairing as anchors.
“There’s no tension between them,” he says of the duo. “The experience and knowledge they bring to the newscast, plus their individual styles, give them wide appeal.
“But it’s not anything that I did that nurtured their popularity,” Zimmerman states. “The viewer holds the power to that. They vote with their remote control and can turn you off in an instant.”
Fortunately for Sprinkle and Young, viewers have not left the dial, particularly for KITV’s Island Television News at 5. It consistently ranks No. 1 in Honolulu Nielsens for its time slot.
A month into the new format, Sprinkle and Young say they are energized by the change and the challenge of distinguishing their 6 o’clock newscast.
It’s like a quarterback in football, Young says, “They have to build a show around what our strengths are.”
That applies to both content and pacing.
And there’s something else they now want to achieve.
Serving the public good is the most gratifying part of their jobs, both say.
Young explains, “We’re not interested in face time. We really want to be useful and conduct our business in an ego-less way. We are blessed with opportunities, and with that, comes responsibility.”
Sprinkle adds, “We can be a messenger for the greater good, whether it’s doing things to help our island state or a state of mind. I like the idea that we might have a hand in something good that matters.”
Their confidence in building a news franchise is backed by what they claim is the most experienced TV crew in the Islands.
“We have a deep bench,” Young says, referring to KITV’s team of reporters, cameramen and producers. “When we need to pull together, particularly in a statewide emergency, everyone knows exactly what to do.”
She and Sprinkle recall operating in blackout conditions three years ago during a hurricane. For more than 11 hours, the KITV anchors were live, doing a nonstop “bare-bones broadcast.”
“In a disaster you cease to become a television station. You become a public utility,”
Sprinkle says. “And CNN took our words worldwide.”
Film at 5 and 6
But it’s not getting any easier, they claim. Acknowledging industry cutbacks and profit margin challenges, they are having to “do more with less.”
“You can do only as many stories as you have people,” Sprinkle says. “It’s only because we have so many veterans here that we’re able to maintain a certain level of professionalism.
“And in years to come, Pamela and I will likely be replaced by a couple of potted plants,” he speculates.
“People won’t have to come home to see the news,” he says, noting that advanced electronics already delivers the news in many forms - phones, Internet, satellite TV - so there will be news available 24 hours a day with a menu to customize individual choices.
Meanwhile, the ever-changing TV news scene continues to evolve and fascinate viewers. It’s a subjective choice whom one watches each day, and Sprinkle-Young know they can only be themselves and hope it clicks with viewers.
Like their marriage, they say, this requires giving each other the respect and space to be a team as well as individuals.
Off the camera, they’re a typical Island couple who enjoys the comforts of their Mariner Ridge residence and traveling around the world. Young’s a gourmet cook, sews, and keeps fit with kickboxing and tai chi. Sprinkle’s an ocean sports guy and avid golfer, who tests his 8-12 handicap on the Oahu Country Club links every week.
The couple sponsors a scholarship, giving generously each year to cover the tuition of five faculty-selected KCC culinary arts students.
Even while facing health issues this summer - Young overcoming a breast cancer episode and Sprinkle with knee surgery - both are fully committed to work and community involvements.
If that’s not enough to keep them up at night, the 14 Emmy statuettes, a Peabody, a Teddy and 28 Society of Professional Journalists awards that line their bookshelf should be ample reminders that you’re only as good as your next story.
For Mr. & Mrs. Broadcast News, it’s a whole new chapter.
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